Function of Past Perfect Continuous Tense

Function of Past Perfect Continuous Tense. After sharing about Past Perfect Tense in the previous post, this time I want to continue sharing about kind of Tense. In this case I want to share about Past Perfect Continuous Tense.

While talking about Past Perfect Continuous Tense, it means that we are talking about an action that started before the past and continued until the past action. And for the complete discussion, let’s go to the following pattern and function of Past perfect continuous Tense.

The Pattern of Past perfect continuous Tense

( + ) Subject + had + been + Ving

Randy had been doing his homework.

They had been discussing their plan.

( – ) Subject + had + not + been + Ving

Randy had not been doing his homework.

They had not been discussing their plan.

( ? ) Had + Subject + been + Ving

Had Randy been doing his homework?

Had they been discussing their plan?

The Function of Past perfect continuous Tense

We use the past perfect continuous to look back at a situation in progress.

Examples:

It was a good time to invest. Inflation had been falling for several months.

Before I changed jobs, I had been working on a plan to reduce production costs.

We had been thinking about buying a new house but then we decided to stay here.

We use Past perfect continuous Tense to say what had been happening before something else happened.

Examples:

It had been snowing for a while before we left.

We had been playing tennis for only a few minutes when it started raining.

He was out of breath when he arrived because he had been running.

We use Past perfect continuous Tense when reporting things said in the past.

Examples:

She said she had been trying to call me all day.

They said they had been shopping.

I told you I had been looking for some new clothes.

That’s all sharing about the Function about Past perfect continuous Tense. Hopefully it will be useful.